***Afterwards, as a safety net for some capital infusion, I will take two months off of every year to take advantage of an opportunity I have to make about $20k. 

They have bungled multiple deals for me that have caused a lot of pain in the subsequent resale. 

She then agreed it was good enough, but she was almost evicted twice and was a pain in the neck throughout the tenancy.I would either let her purchase a new fridge on her own now, or tell her you'll buy a new one when she signs next year's lease....if she's still there.

I've also done some reading on how that process can be a pain.

After a long, painful process of going back and forth with the attorney (turns out she originally tried to do all the paperwork with the courthouse without an attorney and fouled everything up) we finally got a final decree from the court putting title in the seller's name.

Having to do that for something that's far away is a little less painful if you have some other reason/benefit to be in the area (e.g., family).The main site for RI properties is riliving.com so for your question of "would it make sense to look in this area", I'd say find some properties in the area, look at their asking price and what you'd likely have to put down for them, and then look at Craigslist for rental comps.

I feel your pain buddy! 

It's pretty hard right now to cash flow on a MFR when your in one of the units because purchase prices have sky rocketed. 203k loans are a pain in the butt in a hot market.

No pain, no gain.     

Is going to be a pain.